International Night

First thing I was thinking about today is how nice and convenient canning can be. Yes it does take some time in the beginning BUT to have a nice home cooked meal in under 10 minutes is WONDERFUL!!! Last night for dinner we had our homemade Chili that we canned some time ago. We didn't have much time and we really do not care to eat out MOST days so Chili it was.

Note the little crackers in the picture. They are called Cheeslings. I found them while exploring an Indian grocery store last week. They are perfect to sprinkle over chili. I stumbled upon them while finding ingredients for "International Night". Thats right "International Night". Many of you are probably wondering what that is... SO I will elaborate. My husbands family wanted to put a spin on Thanksgiving this year so everyone brought an appetizer from a different country. My husband chose India and I chose Mexico. I think we had at least 13 countries represented. It was a lot of fun and gave us all an opportunity to try some new food from around the world. 

I challenge everyone to find an Ethnic grocery store, whether it be Hispanic, Asian, Indian, etc., and try to make something new with ingredients you find. Not only will you learn something new about food you may actually learn something about yourself as well.

Decisions, Decisions!!!

Today was clean up the computer and desk day. Anyone who knows me understands I take a lot of pictures. That being said the only way to find certain ones in a jiffy is to stay organized. I have an external hard drive full of photos and videos all categorized by person and or event. I started this for two reasons. One reason was to free up my hard drive space and the second was so I could find my photos quick for projects or for emailing. Some may look at my "tree" of photos on my external drive as OCD...others are amazed. Trust me if you ask me for a pic of your kid on Easter 2008, I can tell you almost instantly if I have one. THAT is the perk of being organized. One day I would like to have the time and resources to scan in all the non-digital photos I have so I can archive them as well.

Soooo as I was cleaning I realized I have a Groupon that is about to expire for Canvas on Demand.  I have been contemplating for weeks about what picture I want to use for my three panel photo split. With the help of the husband I have narrowed it down to two:

Maybe with the help of who ever looks at this I can narrow it down to one!! It is giong in the Dining Room which opens up to the Living Room. I have a dark espresso colored table with all different colored chairs. Let me know what ya think.

Using your Own

My husband and I decided when we bought our house that we would garden and Can food for the winter. We have been doing it successfully for two years now. Considering the learning curve I think we have done pretty good. Neither one of us grew up canning food although I do remember going to my Great Grandparents house and seeing shelves full of canned food. THAT is now my inspiration.

So far we have harvested and either canned or froze everything from cabbage to chili. We even make our own stocks and sauces. It has definitely been a learning experience and let me tell you everyone has their own opinion on how to do it "RIGHT". For example, most people would agree the safest way to can is to follow the "canning bible", aka the Ball Canning Book. However if you talk to some old school canners they have a very different idea of what is right. So over the past two years we have taken in as much info as possible.

Most everything we save we have grown in our own backyard, which is nice because we know exactly where it came from. We chose to use heirloom seeds this year to see what the yield and taste difference might be. We also grew a few things we have never done before like popcorn, artichokes, many different beans, broccoli, beets, and brussel sprouts.  Some turned out and some didn't but we learned a lot and have modified our plans for next year.

Now we are just making sure the garden is prepared for winter...pulling everything, tilling and fertilizing. That is were the chickens come in.  One good thing about chickens is they give their poop for FREE.

I have never been much of a writer...in fact being from Texas I am not sure we even go by the rules of Webster. You know the Dictionary. So if you are looking for proper punctuation, grammar and spelling this is probably not the place for you. 
However, if you are just wanting to know some of my trials and tribulations including but not limited to: traveling, gardening, raising chickens, canning, and who knows what else...then you may enjoy looking around. 

I often times go online for this answer or that and have learned that if it weren't for some very talented bloggers out there I may have never found my answer.  So my hope here is that a little peek into my everyday life may answer a question or inspire you in some way. 
Like I said I am new to blogging so it may take me a bit to get the hang of it so bare with me. 

Thanks,
Enjoy!